The Basketball (篮球)

This is a story told by Ben:

I remembered that when I was around 7 or 8 years old, I picked up a basketball while on my way back from the school. It was quite a common basketball just like those ones sold in supermarkets.

Although the basketball has nothing special, I started to enjoy playing with the ball very soon. Since I was staying in a village house with my mother then and I was the only child, I have got used to play alone.

My basketball game is fairly simple: the basketball was being thrown about either from one corner in the house to another, or the ball was being thrown from outside of the house into my mother's bedroom through the skylight imagining that I was shooting basket in a basketball court. Then I would run into the living room and into my mother's bedroom to get the ball. And again this basketball would be thrown through the skylight to outside.

This repetitive games would look dull to a modern kid but it was quite an enjoyment to a poor kid like me at that time. Very strangely too that I could play with this basketball for entire day and never get bored.

So inward and outward bound I went for countless of times until I was sweaty all over. Then finally, after running for a lost count of times; when I rushed into my mother's bedroom to get the basketball, I saw a kid about my age was standing by the bed holding the basketball.

I knew this kid, he is Sam who stayed just opposite the street. But the question was that why this kid was in my house?

Before I could open my mouth, Sam looked at me and said: "Why do you steal my basketball?"

Feeling annoyed with such an accusation, I yelled at Sam: "I found the basketball by the roadside. If it is yours, then take it back!"

After yelling out the words, I felt indignant and went to get my mom who was cooking in the kitchen. After telling my mom about the basketball, she accompanied me to the bedroom but Sam was no where to be found though the basketball lied still on the floor.

After the dinner, my mom brought me to Sam's house with the basketball in the hope to return the basketball to Sam.

At Sam's place, Sam's mother came and greeted us. She looked as if she had been crying. After my mom told the lady about the basketball, Sam's mother looked astonished and after stood dumbfounded for a while, she finally said: "Sam was knocked down by a car while crossing the road in front of the school! He went to school early with his beloved basketball in the hope to play basketball!"

There was nothing both of us could have done but to leave Sam's basketball to his mother...